Dado blades for Radial Arm Saw

I am aware that blades for Radial Arm Saw should have a negative rake.
But, what about Dado blades.
I have not seen any advertised.
I have a Ridgid 10" saw, which cuts very well and is very accurate.
Tim Kimsey

I'm always amused by this. Up until perhaps the mid to late '90s no
one ever talked about a different rake angle for RASes. No one ever
sold a "RAS blade".
While I don't doubt that a zero or negative rake may possibly reduce
the "bite" of the blade and lessen the pressure needed to hold the
carriage from overfeeding, one can't just ignore the amount of bite
provided by the inertia of 40-60 1/8" teeth spinning at 3450 RPM
acting on a chunk of wood varying in thickness, width, and density. A
dado may even increase that energy (which is probably why you don't
see 10" dado sets).
Did you ever wonder why the molding heads (sold equally for use on
either a table saw or RAS) don't have even remotely a negative rake?
I've used a RAS since 1972 and one of the very first things I learned
about it was how to control the carriage. Rake has never been an
issue.

Just get the best dado set you can afford and while you're at it spend
10 bucks on a set of Veritas shims. I've run everything from a bargain
basement Sears to the latest Forrest and none of them work any
differently on a radial arm saw than they do on a table saw.
As for the negative rake, while there might be some slight benefit to it
I've never used a blade that was purpose made for a radial arm saw and
never felt that I was lacking anything.
Adjust the saw properly and any decent quality blade should work fine.
If you don't have a good quality blade already then there's no reason
not to get a Woodworker I (Forrest sells this one specifically for
radial saws)instead of a Woodworker II (intended for table saws) but I
don't think you'll really see a lot of difference.
At this point someone's probably going to tell you to get custom ground
triple chip grind--tried it, glad I have it, it's really nice on
plastics, but it doesn't do as good a job on wood as a good combination
blade.

I have Dad's old craftsman wobble dado and a new 8" set from Freud. The
wobble is good for demonstrating that well engineered devices CAN hold
together under extreme vibration, but that's about it. The Freud was
"pushier" than my negative rake RAS/CMS blade (Get those with more than
40 teeth if you can...). Keep in mind that you are hogging out LOTS of
material on a single full depth pass. I have both a RAS and the TS.
The TS controls the DADO depth from the open side of your material, the
RAS controls the remaining material "under" the dado. Each has it's own
advantages. The Freud came from the Blue BORG with a good set of shims.

The Forrest Dado King comes with a good set of shims too (it ought to
for the price) but the Veritas set has thinner shims than come with the
blades, so more precise control. If you can plane the stock to fit the
dado it's not an issue but if you need the dado to accurately fit
whatever fits into it it makes a difference.

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